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Sons safe, Lodi man in custody, after wife’s stabbing death

UPDATE: FBI agents and local police were waiting when a Lodi man who authorities said fled with his two young sons after stabbing his estranged wife to death pulled up to a relative’s house in South Carolina overnight, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this morning.

Photo Credit: GREENVILLE COUNTY DETENTION CENTER; Tracey Jordan, sons, courtesy Kim Ruck / Maria De Julia

John “Rob” Jordan, 47, was arrested without incident when he arrived in Greenville, S.C., with sons Nicholas, 8, and Anthony, 7, at 12:45 a.m., Molinelli said. He was being held as a fugitive from justice, without bail, in the Greenville County Detention Center (mugshot above).

(CLIFFVIEW PILOT reported Jordan’s arrest just after 1 a.m.: Lodi man sought in wife’s stabbing death captured in South Carolina, sons safe)

Jordan was driving a grey 2012 Honda Accord that belonged to his estranged wife, 39-year-old Tracey Jordan, whose body was found at her Cynthia Gardens apartments on Garibaldi Avenue just after 5 p.m., the prosecutor said.

She’d been stabbed several times in the chest, Molinelli said.

At that point, the 5-foot-10-inch, 215-pound Jordan had already been on the run for several hours, authorities said.

Jordan is charged with murder and weapons possession. Bail won’t be set until he is extradited to New Jersey, Molinelli said.

New Jersey State Police issued an AMBER Alert for the youngsters, which was followed by a request by Lodi police to extend it to Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina, where their father had connections.

Surveillance was set up at the homes of relatives in California and South Carolina, Molinelli said.

Both boys were still in their school uniforms — maroon-colored collared shirts and khaki pants — when John Jordan signed them out of the Wilson Elementary School at 10:30 a.m. Friday, a source with direct knowledge of the case told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

John Jordan was a “class parent” at the school.

“The teachers pick two in the beginning of the year during back-to-school night and you are the class parent for your child’s class for that whole year,” the source said.

“You pick up cupcakes or juice and help teachers serve,” the source said. “You chaperone on field trips and help with holiday parties. There is usually a Halloween party, a Christmas party and an end of year party.

“Some of the parents participated in a three-day Mother’s Day plant sale. One of the boys bought a plant for his mom.”

Originally from Saddle Brook, she was divorcing her husband, loved ones said. Her father is a retired Edison police officer, they told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

(ABOVE: John Jordan, courtesy GREENVILLE COUNTY DETENTION CENTER; Tracey Jordan, sons, courtesy Kim Ruck / Maria De Julia)

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